Looking at the Lord's Supper

23rd August 2021

Looking Back

Jillian and I celebrated a wedding anniversary last week – 14 years – and, inevitably, conversation drifted back to the day we were married, it went further back to when we met, and then, as you’d imagine, Jillian questioned how she’d managed to put up with me for so long!

An anniversary causes us to look back to the promises we made with each other on our wedding day and, in doing so, it helps us reaffirm our ongoing love and commitment to each other. Looking back to our wedding day helps our relationship today. Similarly, the Lord’s Supper invites us to look back on what Christ has done for us in his sacrificial death. And remembering Jesus’ death helps us reaffirm our ongoing love and commitment to Him. When we look back to what Jesus has done for us, it helps our relationship with Him today.

It was Jesus who established the Lord’s Supper on the eve of his death as an act of remembrance. Luke records the events in chapter 22,

And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. (Luke 22:19-20)

So the Lord’s Supper causes us to look back to Jesus’ sacrificial death in which He took our place and became the sin punishment for us. We look back to the event and we also look back to what it achieved for us. We do not simply remember the death of a man but we recall that this man’s death accomplished our salvation, secured our forgiveness, and is the means by which we enter His Kingdom.

Going even further back

Of course, the Lord’s Supper finds its roots in the Passover. The story of the exodus is a story of God rescuing His people from slavery. Enslaved by the Egyptians, God rescued His people from the final plague sent upon Egypt. All the first-born children in Egypt died as a judgement from God for their refusal to acknowledge God and heed His words, and for their oppression of the Israelites. And so God instructed the Israelites to slaughter a lamb and paint the lamb’s blood on the lintels of their doorpost. When death struck the nation, the homes bearing the lamb’s blood were passed over and all in the home were saved.

The lamb died but the first-born children did not.

As Jonathan Griffiths writes,

“The Passover meal was to be a continual reminder of the great salvation that God brought to his covenant people through a great act of judgment.”

And in the upper room, Jesus ties Himself into this great story. In his broken body and shed blood, He becomes the Passover lamb. All those covered by His blood are passed over when judgement comes. Jesus died so the children of God do not.

So the Lord’s supper becomes a continual reminder for the believer of the great salvation that God has brought to us through the sacrifice of Jesus – a sacrifice that was an act of God’s judgement as the wrath we rightly deserved was borne by Jesus.

Remembering

Remembering in the Bible has a very specific meaning. When the Bible talks about God remembering, it is not saying that God was absent minded, forgot about His people or His promises and then suddenly remembered them. No! When the Bible talks about God remembering, it is a signal that God is about to act on the basis of what He had promised.

Remembering in the Bible is active. Remembering in the Bible involves action.

God would encourage His people to remember what He had done for them. And in doing so, He gave them things to help them remember. The Passover meal was shared and eaten as an active act of remembrance; memorial stones or alters were built as an act of remembrance.

And so similarly, in the Lord’s Supper, the act of sharing and eating the supper together is an active remembering.

In recent weeks at Calderwood, we’ve used the phrase ‘living knowledge’ to describe the goal of learning about Jesus as gaining knowledge that transforms our lives. It is not inactive and powerless but active and powerful. Similarly in the Lord’s Supper, we practice ‘living remembrance’. It is not inactively looking back on a historical event but is an act of remembrance that is active, powerful, and life-transforming.
 
So when we take the Lord’s Supper together, we look back. We look back to the work of Christ on the cross that has redeemed and saved us. We do not look back as those opening a history book unaffected by the events. But we look back as those whose lives have been forever altered by this great of act of love, mercy and grace.

Next - Looking Around